Romelie is big into counting right now. Really loves it. But she never says "seven." Seven does not exist. 1 2 3 4 5 6...8 9 10. That's how she counts. On the one hand, I'm extraordinarily impressed that my 20-month old can almost count to 10. I don't have a lot of other kids to compare her with, but it seems pretty amazing to me. On the other hand, what's the deal with seven? Because it's two syllables? She doesn't seem to have a problem with "Jeffy" or "Elmo" or "Chason."Recent news and events: we had an awesome return visit from Mr. Pinkeye. Even though I put the drops diligently into Romelie's eyes for an entire week, pinkeye returned within 2 days - and this time I got it, too. Fun fun fun. Knock on wood, it seems to be gone this time.
Also, Romelie had an allergic reaction to something she ate on Saturday. She got a purply-red...rash-looking thing all around her mouth and chin as she was finishing lunch. Problem is, that day she'd eaten milk, wheat, strawberries, egg, and peanut butter. Pretty much every top allergic-reaction-provoking food except shellfish. We've already ruled out milk and wheat, and strawberries are pretty unlikely since she'd actually had that for breakfast four hours earlier. So...cross your fingers it's not a peanut allergy, because if you didn't already know, those STINK. We're going to test out all the other foods one at a time over the next couple weeks (doctor's recommendation), and if none of those produce the same reaction, I'm holding off on peanut butter. It seems too scary to feed her peanut butter and pray her throat doesn't close up or something. Maybe I'll give it to her at her 2-year well-baby check-up...that way, if something goes wrong, we've got a doctor right there! 
Recent outings have included our neighborhood block party - Armatage, the neighborhood we actually live in, not just other neighborhood parties I've crashed - and The Works, a hands-on, minds-on museum of technology a few miles from our house. Since Romelie is very into stickers and stamps on 
the backs of her hands, we decided we'd get her hand painted (as opposed to her face painted, which we figured she would not enjoy). She got balloons, which she's also very into lately (we have sidewalk chalk which is shaped like eggs which she called balloons but pronounces bubbles...it's very confusing, I know). She kept calling it her pretty for the rest of the evening. And at The Works, we got to play with cool light-bending technology and other things that I don't quite understand but enjoy playing with. Romelie liked the bended mirrors.
the backs of her hands, we decided we'd get her hand painted (as opposed to her face painted, which we figured she would not enjoy). She got balloons, which she's also very into lately (we have sidewalk chalk which is shaped like eggs which she called balloons but pronounces bubbles...it's very confusing, I know). She kept calling it her pretty for the rest of the evening. And at The Works, we got to play with cool light-bending technology and other things that I don't quite understand but enjoy playing with. Romelie liked the bended mirrors.
And other than counting, Romelie's most recent accomplishment/development involves becoming more helpful. For example, she's suddenly very into cleaning. She'll still pull every diaper out of the basket but then she'll put them all back, albeit not very well, or not in the correct place - she'll very helpfully put all her clean diapers into the dirty diaper pail, for example. At bath time, she'll get all her bath toys and put them in the bath while I'm running the water. When she needs a diaper changed, she'll hand me a clean one. And she has started dressing herself. Still needs a bit of work on that one, though! 
Her hair is also getting pretty long - I managed to get a ponytail in this weekend without her taking it out. I still need to figure out what to do about her bangs, though. I don't want to cut them, but she won't let me clip them back, so they're in her face all day. Ah...silly beauty dilemnas.
